DEAD PUPS ON GORBATCH. 409 



The Lagoon rookery is located on a spit formed of rounded bowlders thrown up 

 by the surf, or more likely pushed up by ice floes. It presents a hard ground for either 

 seals or man to move about on as the bowlders are very irregular. The death rate on 

 the rookery is extremely small, though it is exposed to the full force of the surf, and 

 landing when the water is high must be fraught with danger. The small number of 

 dead shows clearly that the number of drowned pups is small. 



DISSECTIONS. 



Two pups supposed to have been drowned were brought home to be examined. 

 Mr. Lucas reports no evidence of drowning. 



The following is the record of the dissections : 



Male pup, fat; extravasations over neck and chest in subcutaneous district. 

 Lungs highly congested; hard, containing much blood. Serous fluid in thorax; right 

 side of heart much distended with blood clots. 



Female pup, very thin; lungs flaccid, congested; kidneys also congested; 

 subcutaneous tissue congested over back and side of thorax. Black slime in rectum. 



AUGUST 13. 



The count of dead pups on Gorbatch was made by Lr. Jordan, assisted by Mr. 

 Macoun. Mr. Lucas dissected such dead pups as were fresii enough for examination. 



GORBATCH DEAD PUPS. 



The northern end of Gorbatch, beginning below Zoltoi to the green cliff, has 426 

 dead pups. Here there are four small death traps, the one opposite the first bight 

 being a space covered with flat stones offering no protection. The next, very bad, is 

 a sandy district at the end of the cliff's right under the high pinnacle with the small 

 concavity adjoining it. 1 Another bad place lies behind and abutting the last green 

 cliff. All spaces in which seals are massed are dangerous to pups, whether covered 

 with sand, hard earth, or rounded rocks. They are only safe when the bowlders are 

 large and angular. The rocks here are hard and worn as slippery as glass. 



Along the rocky edge of Gorbatch, at the foot of the smooth cinder slope between 

 the last green rock and the hair-seal point, are 232 dead pups. South of this point to 

 the end there are 54. This region is largely composed of coarse columns flattened 

 at the top with a high cinder slope, containing some very steep slides, along which a 

 seal that has occasion to go down is likely to slide from top to bottom. All these parts 

 are densely occupied, the number of bad places being exceedingly small. This tract, 

 covering one-fourth of the whole rookery, has but about one fifteenth of the dead 

 pups. 



On the very steep slide at the south end, in which numbers of seals are coming 

 and going, there are numerous large pods of pups, but only 2 dead ones were found. 

 When the seals are frightened they rush for this slide, and are often piled up in a 

 congested mass at the bottom, but they work their way out, because they can not be 

 jammed against rocks. On the rocky columns near by the pups leap from rock to rock 

 and tumble down, bounding like rubber balls. When they get fastened in a crevice 

 they extricated themselves as readily as a cat would. 



1 These sandy spaces were in 1897 found to be infested with Uncinaria. 



